More Podcast, Less Process is a podcast about archives, archivists, and the archival enterprise hosted by Jefferson Bailey and Joshua Ranger. More information: keepingcollections.org/more-podcast-less-process/

Many of us would love to be more involved in doing something positive for ourselves, and ultimately, our communities. Where’s the perfect place to start? Go and visit your local library. The library provides resources that are freely available, and the opportunity to give back and make a difference. And it may literally be just around the corner from your home.

Karen du Toit's insight:

Libraries are a great place to start with getting that project running, or getting involved with other projects already up and going!

By Cynthia Nikitin and Josh Jackson...new libraries serve as centers of discovery and communication–places where people gather and where information comes alive through teaching and personal interaction. Indeed, to distinguish themselves in a world where Google is well on its way to digitally scanning most of the books ever written, libraries are learning to take advantage of the simple fact that they are centrally located in almost every community. In other words, libraries now see success being linked to their role as public places and destinations.

Karen du Toit's insight:

Three libraries that incorporates projects attracting users to their places/spaces:

"The “Come Write In” initiative is a sub-program of NaNoWriMo that encourages writers, or Wrimos, to use libraries as writing studios during NaNoWriMo. The initiative is part active programming, part marketing campaign – meaning that libraries can get involved to whatever degree they are comfortable with and however works best for their programming schedule"

"Academic and public libraries have long played an important role in society by managing, disseminating and preserving government information, making it available to researchers, policy makers and the public. With the shift to “digital government,” in which the government delivers information and services to the public directly through online channels, the role of libraries is changing, leading to new challenges and opportunities. The E-informing the Public research project, carried out at the University of British Columbia in Canada, investigates the shift to digital government and its impact on public access to government information."- See more at: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/articles/supporting-users-organizations/2013-08/e-informing-public-libraries-and-e-government#sthash.dSDdQpcl.dpuf

United by a passion for books and reading, volunteers across the nation have made it possible for the African Library Project to deliver its one millionth book this month.

Founded by a Portola Valley woman in 2005, the nonprofit group was created to increase literacy in a country whose population has the highest percentage of illiteracy in the world.

It was during a family vacation in Lesotho, a small mountainous region in southern Africa, that founder Chris Bradshaw realized establishing libraries could have a profound effect on increasing literacy. She began working closely with local teachers and community leaders, and it expanded from there.

Reaching the one millionth book "is a real statement about the people in this country and just what a generous spirit they have in wanting to help do good in the world and recognizing the importance of literacy for any civilization to progress," Bradshaw said.

"Called "The Human Face of Big Data," (http://thehumanfaceofbigdata.com/) this is the latest project by longtime photojournalist Rick Smolan, the one-time National Geographic photographer who's best known for creating the "Day in the Life" series of books.Smolan's approach for this work was the same as the one he's used for his main prior projects: He dispatched an small army -- in this case 100 photographers and 22 researchers going at it for a year and a half -- to capture and illustrate one topic. Big data is a tough one, for sure, not as visually obvious as, say, "The Obama Time Capsule," which chronicled Obama's first presidential run and his first 100 days in office.

Rick Smolan(Credit: Techonomy)Which is why Smolan needed some convincing. "It just sounded so fluffy," said Smolan, whom I met up with at this week's Techonomy conference in Tuscon, Ariz., where he presented some of the images and findings from the book.Before taking on the project, Smolan asked all sorts of tech bigwigs to describe big data for him, including Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. But it was Marissa Mayer, now Yahoo's CEO, who talked about it in a way that made him to decide to do the book.

Author shares her experiences with a library-building project in Lusaka, Zambia.

"The library we funded is so much more than “just” a library it is also a literacy and literacy education program for the teachers, children and parents associated with this school. Room to Read trains the teachers and a parent representative on how to manage the library and how to catalog books and operate a check-out system. The program funds a literacy teacher who integrates library time into the school day for all children. The kids can come to school early or stay late just to read."

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